Profile: Heather Clark

by Dawn Belloise

A little over four years ago, Heather Clark quit a long succession of corporate jobs and two years later she decided to invest in a commercial space in Crested Butte to house her dream of creating a business revolving around catering charcuterie and cheeses, which she named Joyful Rind. Last year, she added ice cream to that dream. She, and her now seven employees affectionately refer to her workspace as her “Barbie kitchen,” while hustling up new flavors of ice cream, restocking the locally traveling ice cream trike that sells the favorite summer treat to adults and kids who, “Must have the pink ice cream,” Heather smiles.

Heather was born and raised in the upstate New York village of Cazenovia, the daughter of Dianne and Rick Clark and sibling to her brother, Richie Clark, who now works for Precise Painting in Crested Butte. Her childhood, she recalls, was idyllic, playing soccer in the fall and spring, long summer days on the lake water skiing and swimming, and winters spent at the Cazenovia Ski Club, a small private mountain with a T-bar and two rope tows. Her high school was a little bigger than Crested Butte Community School and the town’s tight-knit nature meant everyone knew everyone, including all the teachers who lived locally. You couldn’t get away with many shenanigans, she laughs, “We knew everybody, for good or bad.” Heather graduated in 2001 after cultivating interests in fine art, dance and theater and was part of the drama club. She had helped design and build sets and served as stage manager for school productions. Heather had considered becoming a math teacher, since she not only enjoyed the subject but also excelled in it, however, she says, “I didn’t want to give up theater.”

Heather enrolled at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, in the fall 2001 focusing on a math and theater double major. College widened her involvement in the arts and she joined the student theater group and scene shop, where students built sets and became heavily involved in an Art Fest started by a friend. “We brought in presenters and speakers who were connected with arts or an arts related job or career.” As for the math aspect of her education Heather says, “The math department was heavily into theoretical math which really pushed my brain,” and she delivered a presentation linked to the play “Proof” for a student math seminar series that explored connections between math and other fields. “The whole point of the series was to see how wide people could take the relevancy of math.”

Each summer Heather traveled to a different city which added a variety of practical experiences. In 2002 she worked with a post-production film company in Atlanta, in 2003 she was a production intern with a musical theater company in St. Louis, and in 2004 she completed an intensive summer business program for undergraduates at Tuck School of Business in Dartmouth. Heather graduated from Colgate University in 2004.

After graduation, Heather moved to Chicago to pursue theater. “My time in St. Louis taught me that if I wanted to progress my career, I needed to be in a city that had a lot of theatre companies.” So she chose Chicago, “because it was cheaper than New York.” She did an internship under a production manager for the American Blues Theater, where she was coordinating production elements. “I loved living in Chicago. I soaked up the city. I thought I would be there for two years and then move to New York,” but she wound up staying in Chicago for 16 years.

After the internship she became office manager at Red Moon Theatre Company for almost three years, where she expanded her experience into marketing, grant writing, websites and fundraising. “A little bit of everything,” she says, and even donned a costume herself for an event. She later served as executive director of the theater company The Hypocrites, becoming the organization’s first full-time staff member during a period of growth. In one-and-a-half years, she produced five shows, including a highly praised, black box production of Our Town directed by David Cromer. “Emily, the heroine, comes to the realization that life is short and to savor every moment you can,” Heather says, and that concept stayed with her and guided her in the coming years.

In 2008, as the nonprofit job market tightened during the financial crisis, Heather landed a job as marketing and events manager at Chicago Sailing, a public sailing facility with a fleet of 26 boats. She had learned to sail as a child but recalls, “Sailing on Lake Michigan is an entirely different beast so there was a little bit of a learning curve. It’s home to the largest freshwater race in the world.” She worked there six years while also volunteering as a youth soccer coach in her spare time.

Afterwards, in 2015, Heather shifted to startups and agencies, working two-and-a-half years at Video Brewery, an online marketplace connecting companies with video creatives. She then was hired by a marketing agency in Evanston, Illinois. In 2018 she joined CNO Financial Group, managing acquisition marketing campaigns, where she appreciated the larger budgets and learning opportunities but also realized that she was better suited to small businesses and startups, “Because I could take projects and run with them,” she tells.

March 13, 2020 was CNO’s last day for its office workers because Covid hit and her marketing team was also downsized by about 20%. Heather continued working in Chicago until 2021, and since she could work remotely, she made the decision to move to Crested Butte to be with family. She had first been drawn to town in 2009 when she attended her sister’s wedding. “The place spoke to me,” she said. In August of 2021 she sold her Chicago duplex, bought a Subaru and headed west to Crested Butte, moving in with her parents, who were already living in the valley but splitting their time between the mountains and New York. She notes that adjusting to mountain life included starting her workdays at 7 a.m. to align with East Coast hours.

Heather quickly immersed herself into Crested Butte’s arts scene, emceeing an evening cabaret and making her acting debut as a puppeteer in the children’s show Mice on the Moon. She also directed a staged reading of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, which was connected to the CB Mountain Theatre. Heather also began a long-term relationship with her now partner and much-loved local Chad Reich, which she attributes to, “The wonders of Tinder.”

Attending a 2022 all-women tour to Portugal highlighting women-owned businesses reinvigorated her sense of change. After returning, she quit CNO, noting she had been frustrated by days spent on Zoom which made it hard to integrate into Crested Butte’s community. Within two months, she conceived her new business, Joyful Rind. Heather spent two years working at Mountain Earth learning cheese, inventory, health code requirements, supply chains and how local suppliers operate. That experience helped her launch her shop at 315 Belleview that opened in January of 2026. She offers made-to-order boards, full-service cheese focused catering with pickled fruit and other accompaniments, a grab-and-go market and regional to national dairy sourcing.

Last year, she bought Slate River Traders, a locally made Crested Butte ice cream brand, and now produces the ice cream herself. The ice cream is sold through local retail partners from Gothic to Gunnison. “One of my biggest fears was finding people to work for me,” Clark says, “but it turns out there are a lot of cheese and ice cream fans across the valley.” Many of her employees are teens and hospitality workers who pick up shifts around their other jobs. Joyful Rind is online at joyfulrind.com and on Instagram at joyfulrind.

Heather has learned to savor the moments and has created a business that feels like part of the community. For now, she is focused on growing Joyful Rind, serving boards and scoops across the valley and continuing to plug into CB’s artistic community.